German Camo - WW2

So far, I have not been terribly ambitious with regards to camouflage with my 15mm figures.  For moderns, with ACU I went with a ‘generic’ look as the digital pattern is all but impossible to do at that scale.  The attempt at multicam worked out fairly well I think.  Still, not a fan of camo at this scale.  For WW2, maybe I should of gone US (who only briefly used camoflague) or Soviets (who did not use it, as far as I am aware). 

The Germans made use of camo on every level it seems, and my early attempts at painting them totally ignored this.  This time around, however, I decided to give it a try.  First, I had to figure out what models should be painted appropriately.  Took me some time to recognize which models had helmet covers and camouflage jackets.  Once I did, I then had to figure out what pattern they used.

Most of the info I have on it came from “The Art of War” from Battlefront.  The Heer had their own version of the “splinter” pattern that was the most common.  So, I painted a few models up with that, and they looked… ok.  I have seen better and worse.  My rank and file will all have that pattern on their garments, as well as the rolled poncho attached to some figures. 

When I got started on my 2iC and Scouts, I went looking to see if the Heer ever used other patterns, such as what the SS had.  From everything I read, it was not really common, but acceptable to have the odd figure in a pattern from another branch.  I decided if anyone was likely to have “better” camo (going on the assumption that the SS generally had the best in the way of gear) it would be the command teams and scouts.  I actually tried to find as many models as I could wearing camo for my scouts for that reason. 

Oak Leaf was the pattern I went with, based on THIS article.  I decided for Autumn colors since I did not do a winter theme.  I did the odd helmet cover in the pattern for the scouts, with the 2iC having a jacket in the pattern. 

The pattern was so much easier to make look right (to me anyway) than Splinter.  I immediately saw it, where I had to really play around with the splinter to get it to look passable.  Makes me want to try the Plane Tree or Pea Dot patterns for future models.  My hesitation to do a SS force was in part due to the number of other players playing SS at my last store, but also the supposed complexity of the camo patterns.  Should I ever get a foolish notion to do another German army, I could see it being SS now. 

Photos (to be posted later).